So it’s time to put together a public relations/publicity strategy for your business or organization. The task can seem overwhelming. But if you break the job of public relations planning down into smaller steps, you’ll soon have it together. Here’s one way to put together an effective public relations strategy. (Read more…)

Public relations is not just blindly writing press releases or pitching journalists, but a comprehensive strategy designed to promote your business. The following steps should help you determine whether or not your company has developed a comprehensive public relations strategy. (Read more…)

One of the joys of writing PR Fuel is that it helps me think through my own public relations failings. By putting ideas down on paper — OK, a computer screen — I’ve helped improve my own public relations skills immensely. That’s part of why I’ve come up with a set of rules for dealing with reporters during phone interviews. Hopefully, I can follow them. (Read more…)

Consistency in public relations is important. Public relations consultants and corporate executives are often told to “stay on message” and not to stray from a script. Companies and organizations put an enormous amount of time and energy into hammering home a consistent key messages, be it through public statements, advertising, or simple branding. (Read more…)

Looking back on the past six months, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve learned more about public relations during the time than any other period in my professional life. Here are ten things I’ve learned about public relations in the last half of the year. (Read more…)

When speaking during public relations presentations or media interviews, it’s easy to make any number of rookie mistakes. You may not have prepared enough in advance. Try too hard to appear confident, and you may simply look like you’re showing off. You can confuse listeners by overusing unexplained technical jargon. You can speak in a flat, affectless tone that makes you seem cold and unemotional. Any or all of these mistakes may lead to an audience so bored that it misses your key messages completely. Here are five tips for adding a human touch to your next presentation, speech, or interview. (Read more…)

Congratulations! Your start-up company’s ready to announce its first product. Or maybe you’re handling a competitive announcement from one division of a huge corporation. Or maybe you’re somewhere between big business and entrepreneurship. Whatever the size of your organization, you’ve moved into the public relations stage. Let’s assume everything is ready: press list, press release, booth reserved at key trade shows. You’re good to go, right? Wrong. Because unless you and your staff are prepared for the series of media interviews that are (hopefully) about to ensue, you could be setting yourself up for disaster. (Read more…)

If you want to maximize a public relations client’s chances for good publicity, you may have to ask them them curb their sales pitch. A client’s desire to push a product or service in a press campaign is often the most effective way to get press releases ignored by journalists. Public relations consultants can ruin relationships with editors and producers, and your client’s credibility may become suspect. (Read more…)

Good communicators don’t just wing it. They take the time to prepare, developing key messages. Effective communication depends on clarity, and clarity requires developing key messages and using them consistently. The discipline is deceptively simple, but once mastered, key messages will make every communication process more effective, whether during speeches, presentations, or media interviews. (Read more…)

When you have a public relations message you need to get out to the media in a quick, efficient way, a press conference might seem like a good idea. Rather than setting up interviews with individual reporters, sending out press releases, and contacting editors and producers, you can speak to a roomful of journalists at once. But a press conference, like any media interview, can be tricky. The following tips should make your first — or fiftieth — press conference that much easier. (Read more…)